


Genericons

by Lothar_Hex



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 22:16:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21106901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lothar_Hex/pseuds/Lothar_Hex
Summary: So you know the big named Decepticons. Megatron, Shockwave, Starscream, Soundwave etc. But what the daily life of a bunch of Decepticon faceless goons like? What do they do aside from stand around waiting to get shot? Follow a group of he most generic bots in existence, as they sit around a military base doing nothing much at all. Until a new recruit joins them and things get a little more interesting.





	Genericons

_Almost 4 million years since the Cybetronian civil war began. The galaxy is in a constant state of chaos. Factions within factions. War on a dozen fronts, and no end in sight. This is the grim darkness of…_

“By Primus, this guy was supposed to be here an hour ago! The hell is going on Sarge?”

The Sergeant sighed and closed down his holo-display, the beginning of his memoirs would have to wait. Again. “How should I know?” he replied turning to his corporal, Jet. The lanky flyer was strutting back and forth, the wins on his back twitching slightly, a definite signed he was bored. You had to look at stuff like that when your face was an anonymous silver mask with a curved line where your eyes were. It’s part of why

“Cos you’re the squad leader. Command usually tells you what’s doing on. You tell us. Simple chain of command.”

“Yeah well, Command has about twenty million other things to do than keep track of one cargo transporting triple changer with delusions of grandeur. Probably hoping Astrotrain has crashed into a moon or something,” the Sergeant replied, allowing a smile on his face. He was lucky in that regard, though 4 million years ago if someone said having a mouth would be a luxury for a Cybertronian, he would have used his own to laugh in their face. Faceplates used to be cosmetic items. Something one wore when say, they didn’t want to betray emotions during business negotiations. Or in some cases like the rumoured reason Optimus Prime had one, to hide how ugly you were. Now more and more bots were coming online with them as default. And in a time of war, metallurgic surgery to give mouths to those without was either ridiculously expensive or unavailable since the surgeons were usually busy trying to stop someones Energon leaking out of their spark chamber. Most didn’t bother anyway. Voices could portray as much emotion as needed, and even those with visor eyes were able to use them expressively.

“He better not have, we’ve been needing a new squad member for months. Goddamn Scrapmetal having to get himself killed, the idiot.,” Jet said, kicking a piece of rubble across the landing strip. He’d taken Scrapmetal’s death hard, as the scout had actually pushed Jet out of the way of an Autobot grenade that blew his spark chamber clean open. He was now compensating by insulting the mech at every given opportunity, but the other squad members knew they’d been close. Very close if the fact they had shared a recharge chamber often was any judge.

“Why don’t you play with Igu if you’re that bored?” the Sergeant said, trying to distract his sole flyer from getting too depressed.

“He’s sleeping, ain’t you boy?” Jet said, kneeling down a petting what appeared to be an overly large rifle. A few grunts from the gun would have confused anyone who wasn’t familiar with targetmasters. A few seconds later the gun twitched and then transformed into a vaguely reptilian shaped before rolling on it’s back, exposing it’s underside to an assault of scratches from his owner/wielder.

“Man, Ravage would slash your eyes out if he saw you treating Igu like a pet,” the Sergeant said with a chuckle.

“Hey, not my fault not all beast mechs become fully intelligent.” Jet replied, continue with his scratches. “Besides, I figure having a gun that enjoys belly rubs is better than stuffing my own chest with fully self-aware mechs as Soundwave does. You ever thought about that? It’s kinda weird.”

“Soundwave is kinda weird anyway,” the Sergeant admitted, reflecting on his days serving under Soundwave’s command with his three brothers. “Then again he probably thought the same of me. I mean a Refle…”

“This is Astrotrain calling planet Arkus, Sigma Squad. Come in! And hurry up about it!” their internal radios barked, causing the pair to jump.

The Sergeant sighed and keyed his response code. “This is Sigma Astrotrain, we read you. You get lost or something?”

“Can it little mech. Unlike you, I happen to be in high demand. Had to prioritise my route for those in more need.”

“Aka like the exhaust ports of someone higher up,” Jet said. The Sergeant swore he would have rolled his optics if he had the ability.

“Well, we’re so glad you deigned to grace us with your presence. Sending landing zone co-ordinates.”

“And received. Pfft, if I had my way I’d just dumped this cargo on a flyby. Dunno why Shockwave wants this little cog pampered like this.”

“You just get here and then it’s our problem, not yours.”

“Roger that, heading into the atmosphere now, see you in three minutes,” Astrotrain replied, and signed off.

“Thank God!” Jet said, getting off his knees and pickup up Igu, who instinctively transformed into his weapon mode. The flyer cradled it for a second then wielded him like the weapon he was, scanning the area. They had sensors up to detect hostilities from the locals or Autobots, but it was always better to be paranoid in a war zone. The Sergeant readied his own, normal weapon, and attached his shield to his left arm, before scanning the skies for their delivery. A few minutes later the sounds of powerful engines could be heard a few hundred miles away and a few thousand feet up. Not long after, the boxy shuttle form of Astrotrain rapidly came in to view. Took one final scan of the area, then made their way down from their perch, an intact building that had fallen at a 60-degree angle during the early days of the campaign on Arkus. It ended at an area of road that had been cleared of rubble the previous day by the Sigma. It was just long enough for a non-VTOL transport craft like Astrotrain to land and take off again with minimal fuss. The shuttle had just stopped moving as Jet and the Sergeant approached, and his side cargo door opened. 

“EVERYONE OUT!” Astrotrain shouted, causing his sole passenger to double-time it out of the crew bay. Before anyone else could say anything, his engines ignited and he shot out of the other end of the makeshift runway. As he did so, he transferred the electronic forms over to the Sergeant's internal database with his unique data signature. Rather than argue the formalities, the Sergeant sent them back with his own, glad to be rid of the petulant triple changer. Besides, he had other things to worry about.

“Private Brunt reporting for duty sir!” the new soldier said…saluting Jet. The Jet shook his head and gestured to the Sergeant. The new recruit went silent for a moment, before turning to the actual squad leader. “Sorry sir, I just assumed…”

“It’s fine, the Sergeant replied, waving off the (all too common) mistake the Private had made returned the salute back out of habit. “At ease Private. You’re not the first person to assume a Reflector unit was just there to fill out the numbers. I’m Sergeant Refraktor, but call me Sarge if you prefer.”

“Yes Sergeant Refraktor sir!” the new recruit said, finally lowering his claw.

“The sir isn’t necessary..” Refraktor replied before deciding to size up his new recruit…which took a bit longer than he expected. While he knew he was getting a new tank based soldier, Brunt was a bit more than he had expected. While he wasn't a towering bot like Megatron, he was definitely built to be a tough bot…which probably explain the name. His default purple colour scheme, massive square shoulders, block feet and absolutely massive claw hands made him seem like a wall back home in Kaon had come to life and ready to start breaking things. It didn’t help that his face was…well calling it a face was being kind. It was a tine oval, with a single visor and what looked like a vent for a mouth., he looked incredibly reminiscent of the ancient guardian droids that had acted as drone defenders for the likes of Omega Supreme or Metroplex. Brunt was every bit the generic bot you could expect.

_Which coming from a mass produced Reflector unit is saying something,_ Refraktor thought.

Brunt’s abilities, however, would make him anything but generic. But that could wait.

“We should get going Frak,” Jet said, scanning around the environment with Igu. “We kept this place secret for a while, but someone definitely would have heard Astrotrain approach and take off, the loud git.”

“Good call Corporal Jet,” Refraktor replied, quickly establishing the pecking order for Brun’;t benefit. “How fast can you travel in alt-mode Private?” he asked the newbie.

“80mph on flat terrain. 60mph on rough sir!” Brunt replied at a bark.

“Bout the same as our other tank unit, good. We’ll do proper introductions when we meet up with the rest of Sigma,” Refraktor replied, squinting at Brunt’s volume. He’d have to get the bot to appreciate the subtleties of volume c0ontrol when they got back to base. “Jet, keep a wide patrol in the air while I show Brunt the way?. Stay within a 100-mile radius though,” he said to his unit’s only bot capable of providing air support. That way he’d be able to see far enough to see any local units trying to approach the small group, and close enough to fly in quickly if he and Brunt stumbled across an ambush.

“You got it, boss,” Jet said. The Corporal attached Igu to his hip, and leapt into the air, transforming into the flatted out aerial-based mode, and shot off into the sky. A few seconds later he banked in a wide arc, intending to lazily circle the ground-based bots.

“Sir, it should be no trouble to carry you to our destination if you navigate,” Brunt said, snapping Refraktor’s attention away from Jet. “Since your alt mode doesn’t have…” he paused as Refraktor raised a finger.

“One, it’s Sarge or Sergeant. Not sir,” the Sergeant replied, making sure the tank bot got the point. “And second…” he said before transforming himself. It only took a few seconds, but the silence from Brunt seemed to indicate the private was impressed. “Being a hovercraft beats being part of a spy camera any day,” Refraktor said as his purple, elongated form hovered a few inches off the ground. “Now come on, we have a long journey ahead of us. Should be at the base within 4 hours, unless you were lying about your speed.”

“Sir…I mean Sergeant!” Brunt shouted back, before transforming into his box tank mode.

Refraktor let a slow whistling sound escaped his voice box. Brunt’s transformation sequence was fairly orthodox until you realised that some parts of it didn’t seem to make sense if you tried to trace their locations in bot mode. Still though, the huge cannon that it resulted in meant the recruit would be very useful in base defence “OK Brunt, let’s rollout.”

“But you’re hovering Sergeant.”

“Just shut up and follow me.”


End file.
